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University of Nevada fined

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

RENO–Substantiating complaints filed by University of Nevada
at Reno associate professor Hussein S. Hussein, the USDA Animal &
Plant Health Inspection Service in May 2005 cited the university for
46 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act allegedly committed
between May 25, 2004 and March 21, 2005.
The university agreed to pay fines totaling $11,400 to avoid
going to court.
“The violations included repeatedly leaving 10 research pigs
without adequate water between May and September and improperly
housing the same pigs, frequent poor sanitation of animal care
facilities, lack of veterinary care, improper oversight of research
activities, failing to investigate complaints of animal neglect and
poor record keeping, and failing to properly train university farm
employees,” wrote Frank X. Mullen Jr. of the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Mullen made the case public in a December 2004 three-part
investigative series, after the university pursued disciplinary
action against Hussein. A faculty panel in April 2005 held that the
charges against Hussein were without merit.

British fur seller quits

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

LONDON–“Selfridges has reviewed its policy on fur and will
no longer be selling any fur products,” the upscale department store
chain announced in mid-May 2005.
“Selfridges closed its fur department in 1990 but continued
to sell items such as rabbit fur-trimmed gloves and clothes,” wrote
social affairs correspondent Maxine Frith of The Independent.
The strategy of claiming to sell only fur produced as a
byproduct of the meat industry worked for 15 years, until awareness
spread that much “rabbit fur” coming into Europe from China might
actually be dog or cat fur.
Selfridges, with stores in London, Glasgow, Birmingham,
and Manchester, was among the last major British retailers to sell
fur goods.

New Jersey SPCA to appeal verdict limiting autonomy

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

TRENTON–New Jersey SPCA spokesperson Matt Stanton has
indicated that the NJ/SPCA will appeal to the state Supreme Court an
April 14, 2005 ruling by the New Jersey Court of Appeals that
significantly erodes NJ/SPCA authority.
Although the NJ/SPCA was created by state law in 1868 as an
autonomous police force, able to pursue animal abuse cases without
county oversight, the justices held that it lost that autonomy under
the Criminal Justice Act of 1970, which consolidated all police
activities under the authority of the state attorney general and
county prosecutors.
“The ruling leaves the NJ/SPCA as the lead agency in
investigating animal abuse,” wrote Brian T. Murray of the Newark
Star-Ledger, “but it gives each county prosecutor the authority to
oversee and guide procedures and policies. “
As of May 2001, the New Jersey SPCA had 18 chartered
chapters, at least on paper, each with constabulary law enforcement
authority. A review of alleged abuses conducted by the New Jersey
State Commission of Investigation found, however, that “The SPCAs
at both the statewide and county level have been subverted to the
point where in many instances they are incapable of fulfilling their
primary statutory mission–the effective and reliable enforcement of
animal cruelty laws.

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2005 spring session state legislative achievements

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue on May 10, 2005 signed into
law an income tax return checkoff to help fund the state Dog & Cat
Sterilization Program. The program has been supported entirely by
the sale of commemorative license plates and unsolicited donations.

The Illinois legislature on June 2, 2005 sent to Governor
Rod Blagojevich a revised state Public Health & Safety Animal
Population Control Act. The act, HB 315, expands the funding
sources of the Illinois Pet Population Control Fund from a
commemorative license plate program to include also an income tax
return checkoff, voluntary donations, public safety fines,
forfeited sterilization deposits, and a licensing differential for
intact animals. The act also updates fines and licensing procedures,
requires shelters to offer “adoptable” animals for placement,
expands the definition of dangerous dog and streamlines dangerous dog
law enforcement, exempts feral cat caretakers from the legal
definition of an animal “owner,” and requires shelters to report
intake and killing statistics annually to the state Department of
Agriculture. “HB 669 was also passed. It would provide some
funding to wildlife rehabbers,” said American SPCA senior director
of legal training & legislation Ledy Van Kavage, for whom drafting
and lobbying HB 315 to passage has been a multi-year focal project.

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France, Scotland, Canada weigh new legislation

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

French Justice Minister Domin-ique Perben in early May 2005
recommended that the national civil code, drafted by Napoleon
Bonaparte in 1804, be updated to recognize animals as “living and
sentient beings,” Agence France-Presse reported. Animals have long
been protected from abuse under the French criminal code, but only
by extension of their property status.
The Scottish Executive on May 16 introduced a bill to
prohibit awarding live animals as prizes, and to raise the minimum
age for buying a pet from 12 to 16. “The bill also contains
provisions to help protect against diseases such as hoof-and-mouth,”
and “incorporates tough measures to combat animal cruelty,” wrote
Alan McEwen of The Scotsman.
Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler in mid-May introduced
the fifth attempt, by a series of governments, to update the
federal anti-cruelty code. The new draft bill reportedly includes
broad exemptions for traditional hunting and fishing practices,
including seal-clubbing.

Black Wolf Rescue conviction

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

Black Wolf Rescue founder Robert Clifton Artois, 56, of
Triangle, Virginia, was convicted on June 1, 2005 of neglecting
the 11 wolf hybrids and 18 other dogs who were removed from his
premises by animal control officers on April 18. Volunteer caretaker
Cheryl Grenier discovered and reported the conditions, including a
dead dog, after Artois was jailed in Alexandria on April 13 and
called from jail to ask her to feed and water the animals. Artois
had already been warned to improve his care regimen in October 2004,
and was charged with one count of neglect in November 2004. In
December 2004, Prince William General District Court Judge Peter W.
Steketee continued the original neglect case until June 2005, and
ordered animal control officers to inspect Black Wolf Rescue weekly.
Artois allegedly then refused to allow animal control personnel to
enter his property.
Founded circa 1992, Black Wolf Rescue raised funds through a
web site. Artois was convicted of felony larceny in 1983, and was
convicted of contributing to the delinquency of minors in 1997 and
2003, according to Maria Hegsted of the Potomac News. The 2003 case
involved a 15-year-old boy whom Artois met via the Internet. Artois
was in a sex offender treatment program, Hegsted indicated, and may
be facing fraud charges for falsely claiming on his web site that
Black Wolf Rescue has IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.

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Violence vs. animal law enforcement

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

NAIROBI–Nairobi police fired teargas to disperse
demonstrators on May 18, 2005, and Masai leader Ben Koisaba
threatened to “mobilize Masai to invade Delamere ranches in Nakuru to
press for the re-arrest and prosecution” of Tom Gilbert Patrick
Cholmon-deley, 37, a day after Philip Murgor, Kenya Director of
Public Prosecution, dropped a murder charge filed against
Cholmondeley on April 28 for killing Kenya Wildlife Service ranger
Samson ole Sisina with one of a volley of five shots fired on April
19.
Cholmondeley, an honorary KWS game ranger himself, claimed
Sisina shot first, and said he had mistaken Sisina for a bandit, as
Sisina led an undercover KWS raid on an illegal wildlife
slaughterhouse at one of the Cholmondeley family ranches.
Cholmon-deley remained under investigation in connection with the
slaughterhouse.
Cholmondeley’s grandfather Hugh Cholmondeley, the third
Baron Delamere, visited Kenya to hunt in 1895, decided to emigrate
from Britain to raise cattle, and established the family land and
livestock empire that Tom Cholmondeley now directs.
The Sisina slaying followed the late March murder of a
Swaziland ranger identified only as Mandla.

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Evictions to clear a park in Ethiopia

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2005:

While land invasions and their aftermath destroy the remnants
of wildlife protection in Zimbabwe, the African Parks Foundation has
reportedly introduced to Ethiopia the heavy-handed relocation of
longtime land occupants in the name of conservation that helped to
create the pressures leading to the Zimbabwean debacle.
“Ethiopia wants a Kenyan-style network of wildlife parks to
serve a Kenyan-style tourist industry,” columnist Fred Pearce
charged in the April 16, 2005 edition of New Scientist. “Following
the model of Kenya, the country’s leaders have been throwing the
locals out of the park to achieve the ultimate safari experience for
western visitors: wildlife without people.”
The African Parks Foundation, summarized Pearce, “was set
up by a leading Dutch industrialist, Paul van Vlissingen. It offers
to take over moribund parks from African governments, find
international funding to spruce them up, and then get the tourists
rolling in. It is building a portfolio of parks across Africa,”
including in Malawi and Zambia as well as Ethiopia, but will not
invest in parks that are jeopardized by human encroachment.

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Denver pit bull terrier ban is reinstated by court & is again enforced

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2005:

Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar’s office on April 20,
2005 announced through spokesperson Kristin Hubbell that his office
will not appeal an April 7 ruling by Judge Martin Engelhoff that the
Colorado state legislature had no right under the state constitution
to usurp the authority of local governments to enact breed-specific
animal control ordinances.
The verdict reinstated the Denver ban on possessing pit bull
terriers, in effect from 1989 until it was overturned by the
legislature in May 2004. In the interim, Denver largely avoided the
eight-fold surge in pit bull terrier attacks and four-fold surge in
animal shelter admissions of pit bulls that has afflicted most of the
rest of the U.S.
Engelhoff previously upheld the Denver ordinance in December
2004, but city officials did not resume enforcing the ordinance
while it was still under state appeal. Denver Animal Control
received six pit bulls as owner surrenders and animal control
officers picked up six on May 9, the first day of resumed
enforcement. The Table Mountain Animal Center in Golden and the
Humane Society of Colorado in Englewood also reported receiving more
pit bulls than usual.

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